t of these six months were occupied by Lord
Milner's second visit to England (May-August, 1901). But before we
approach this episode, and thereby resume the main current of the
narrative, it is necessary to trace the course of events in the Cape
Colony. With the government of the Colony once more in the hands of
the British party, Lord Milner had been relieved of the acute and
constant anxieties that marked his official relationship to the
Afrikander Ministry. On the vital question of the necessity of
establishing British authority upon terms that would make any
repetition of the war impossible, Sir Gordon Sprigg and his ministers
were absolutely at one with Lord Milner and the Home Government.
Whatever differences of opinion arose subsequently between the Cape
ministers and the Imperial authorities were differences not of
principle but of detail. For the most part they were such as would
have manifested themselves in any circumstances in a country where the
civil government was compelled, by the exigencies of war, to surrender
some of its powers to the military authority.

[Sidenote: The Bond and peace.]

By supporting the Treason Bill, Mr. Schreiner and Sir Richard Solomon
had dissociated themselves from the Afrikander nationalists; and
henceforward their influence was used unreservedly on the side of
British supremacy.[274] On the other hand, Mr. Merriman and Mr. Sauer,
as we have seen, had openly denounced the policy of the Imperial
Government, and no less openly advocated the aims, and defended the
methods, of the Afrikander Bond. The Bond's determination to do all in
its power to secure the independence of the Boers, and thereby defeat
the policy of the Imperial Government, was manifested by the abrupt
refusal of its leaders to associate themselves with the efforts of the
Burgher Peace Committee. Mr. P. de Wet and the other peace delegates
who had visited the Colony in the circumstances already mentioned,
desired the Bond to co-operate with them by informing the republican
leaders that they must expect no military assistance from the
Afrikander party, and by formally advising them to end the war in the
interests of the Afrikander population. The details of the incident,
as recorded in the Blue-book,[275] show that Mr. Theron, the President
of the Provincial Bestuur of the Bond and a member of the Legislative
Assembly, was at first disposed to regard the proposal of the peace
delegates with favour. But, after exp